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More parents are using the Internet to shame their kids, but this dad is fighting back

Some fathers have chosen to fight back and are sharing videos about the better ways to discipline children other than Internet shaming, a current fad among parents to punish children.
- photo by Mandy Morgan

Mandy Morgan

Deseret News

Posted:
June 16, 2015, 5:09 p.m.

Some fathers have chosen to fight back and are sharing videos about better ways to discipline children than Internet shaming, a current fad among parents to punish children.

The evolution of ways in which parents can discipline and punish their children has has been drastic in the years since the Internet and social media have become commonplace. Along with this evolution has come the practice of shaming children as a form of discipline through videos or pictures posted on the social media.

In response to many of the videos and pictures of parents publicly shaming children including those of embarrassing hair cuts as a more permanent punishment one father decided to stand up and share his own thoughts on disciplining children.

"There is no way in the world I would ever embarrass my son like that. It doesn't take all of that. Good parenting starts before he even gets to the point of being out of control," said Wayman Greshman, a father from Florida, in his You Tube video against shaming children on social media. "Good parenting is getting up in the middle of the night and praying for your child."

Greshman talks about Christian values and how theses can help parents in better disciplining and handling children.

"I've gone on Facebook and many times I've seen this kind of punishment, cutting of the hair or a child being embarrassed one way or another," Greshman said, according to BBC Trending. "There is no legitimate reason for humiliating your child, there is no legitimate reason for snatching their dignity away."

There are experts who agree that there are better ways to discipline children.

"I think it would be difficult to find someone in the field of psychology and mental health who would say (public child shaming) is appropriate," Karyl McBride, a child psychologist, told the BBC. "When parents are shaming and humiliating children, that impacts the child's ability to have proper bonding and attachment with those parents. It impairs trust."

A 13-year-old girl from Tacoma, Washington, killed herself May 30, just days after a video of her father cutting her hair as punishment was posted on the Internet, according to the Daily News in New York. Police reported that the father did not post the video, and the connection between it and the suicide are unknown, but the incident exposed the discussion on public shaming's impact on children to a wider audience.

"While it's impossible to determine the motivations behind individual suicides, one thing is certain: More and more parents are using the Internet to shame their children, and it's not OK," wrote S.E. Smith for the Daily Dot.

There needs to be a bigger conversation about the potential consequences of this kind of public shaming and how parents can use the Internet in more positive ways as children act out, Smith wrote.